Every Member of the Akatsuki in Naruto Ranked from Strong to Strongest

Nobody joins the Akatsuki without first proving themselves to be a pretty superior badass fighter. But who is the strongest of the strong? In this list, we’re going to rank each member of the super secret, super powerful organization, the Akatsuki, from strong to strongest.

12. Zetsu

Starting at rock bottom, White Zetsu is pretty powerful thanks to the power contained within his genetic makeup, but he’s also pretty useless in battle compared to the other super strong characters on this list. That being said, it’s thanks to White Zetsu that the Akatsuki are able to raise an army of clones capable of wielding the almost legendary wood style release.

Mostly, Zetsu is used for reconnaissance missions thanks to his ability pass through solid objects.

11. Hidan

Hidan is one tanky ninja. However, his abilities are not so incredible – he’s sort of a two trick pony, capable of withstanding attacks, and transfering damage onto his opponents. Shikumaru is able to conquer Hidan thanks to his superior intellect. However, Hidan is responsible for dealing out one of the most touching deaths of the entire show when he kills Asuma.

10. Sasori

Sasori is one of the first Akatsuki members we meet. And he’s actually pretty tough. He’s a strong puppet master (the strongest in all of Naruto) and like many other members of the Akatsuki, has altered his body in search of immortality. Sasoroi has actually become a puppet himself, making him invulnerable to many attacks.

9. Konan

Konan has a pretty cool jutsu – she’s able to manipulate paper, and she is even able to transform her entire body into paper. On impressive feat that we see her pull off is to actually do some pretty severe damage to Obito. Unfortunately, however, she acts more in an advisory role, mostly as Pain’s right hand man (or woman). So her power goes mostly unexplored.

8. Deidara

Deidara is actually a pretty tough member of the Akatsuki. He’s able to go toe-to-toe with Sasuke and almost best him. This is largely thanks to his strategic ability and love for the performance of battle, however, with his main weakness (much like his partner Sasori) being difficulty handling hand to hand combat. In terms of raw power, Deidara is outclassed by the ninja further down this list.

7. Kakuzu

Like Kikashi, Kakuzu can leverage every element to great effect. Unlike Kakashi, however, he can instantly replenish his power by stealing it from someone else. This makes Kakuzu really tough to beat – in fact, it takes an entire team effort to take him down, including Naruto shooting a really powerful Rasenshuriken at him.

6. Kisami

Kisami is known for his enormous chakra reserves. However, he is not on the level of the top Akatsuki members, even acknowledging his inability to beat Itachi.

Not only does Kisami have an incredible amount of chakra natively, his sword is also capable of stealing and sealing away chakra from others.

5. Kabuto

Kabuto is a slippery son of a gun. For the majority of the show, we don’t really know who he is or what he’s about. As it turns out, however, he’s a pretty tough ninja.

Kabuto leverages the powers he learned from Orochimaru and (shocker) also modified his body to attain something akin to immortality. In the end, however, he gets his butt kicked by Itachi. A fitting end for this rather odd yet powerful Akatsuki member.

4. Orochimaru

For a time, Orochimaru was intimately invovled with the Akatsuki and even continues to wear the ring. However, he’s not been an active member for some time, as he was not drawn to the idealistic aims of the group but instead towards more selfish one.

Orochimaru is quite simply one of the strongest ninja of all time, and his contribution to the realm of inventing new jutsu is unmatched by virtually any other shinobi.

However, his selfishness is ultimately his undoing, and he is defeated by his own student.

3. Pain

Pain is supremely dedicated to the cause of the Akatsuki, and much more powerful than he is often given credit for. He is so strong, in fact, that he virtually buries the entire Hidden Leaf Village under the power of his Rasengan. It takes Naruto at the height of his power (pre shinobi war where they sort of messed power rankings up) to conquer him.

Ultimately, Pain/Negato is a sensitive being who is brought over to the right way of thinking, thanks to Naruto. His arc is also one of the best in the entire show. In many ways, the story of Naruto, and his reversal from village idiot to savior, concludes in this arc.

The Great Shinobi War arc to come afterwards is mostly just fan service.

2. Itachi Uchiha

Itachi is, without a doubt, one most powerful ninja of the entire Akatuki organization. In fact, he is so powerful that he is able to manipulate the entire organization from within. All along, his secret goal was to save the Village Hidden in the Leaves, and protect his little brother. In a way, all those years that the Old Man Hokage was running things, it was really Itachi who was keeping his home village safe.

However, in a way this hampers his abilities. In fact, we never really see the full extent of Itachi’s powers, as he’s always battling one of our heroes when he’s around, meaning he’s not leveraging the full extent of his power.

Except for that one moment when Orochimaru shows up during his fight with Sasuke and he claps him.

1. Obito

For a while, it seems as though Pain/Negato is the leader of the Akatsuki. However, as we find out, much as how Itachi is secretly trying to run things from the shadows, the true leader of the organization is none other than Obito Uchiha.

Obito is one of the strongest Uchiha members of all time, as well as one of the strongest ninja in general, only being bested by the likes of Madara and, arguably, Itachi (if Itachi hadn’t been sick/killed).